Your remarks about the time investment (in the quizzes particularly) makes me wonder if there has been online content, assignments, quizzes, etc. that I may have been reluctant to “abandon” because I remember the hours of my life I invested in developing them. I also think about how I’ve observed our PCC student populations change and, as a result, so do students’ learning needs. Statistical considerations aside, I still think the indicators you looked do provide valuable information about student success: student worksheet submission rates, the proportion of students who attempted each exam, student exam scores, and performance on specific conceptual topics.

Thanks for the post.

If we apply that analogy to those darn quizzes–it makes sense why they were so hard to finally pull. I’d essentially fed, watered, and pruned them over the years, and by the time I recognized them as weeds they were quite hardy. A good lesson in regular weeding.

I do something that all gardeners will understand … I go through a module or an entire course and “weed”. Besides digging up weeds, I pull off dying pieces off my kale, snatch any fat slugs I see waiting to eat my food … and in general, just do a thorough going over of a part of my garden. I could never do the entire garden all in one day. My life doesn’t allow for such a luxury. So, how would that translate to on-line teaching? I do a read over of all documents. Does the wording still make sense? (Did it ever?) Is the wording even accurate any more? Is there a discussion that just hasn’t been eliciting thoughtful responses in recent times? If so, I put it to bed for a while. maybe I delete it for good. I give every thing the once over. I make sure the quiz questions still match up with the lectures, I make notes of which lectures need redoing when I have the energy. I delete optional documents that I no longer think are compelling to have in the course, etc. I think you get the point. It feels soooo good to do this weeding! We call it “garden hygiene”!